


Food Fight

by inkwells_writing



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 09:36:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14808788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkwells_writing/pseuds/inkwells_writing
Summary: Alfred inspires Arthur to take a risk, let go, and have fun.





	Food Fight

Arthur barely registered anything before he was being pushed to the floor as he heard Alfred shout, “Get down! Now!”

He felt Alfred’s hands on his back, and  _ oh my lord this is the closest I’ve ever been to him,  _ and then he was pushed under the lunch table as he felt something slimy slap the back of his neck.

He heard a bubbling laughter as he turned over to see Alfred tucking himself under the table too. “Dude, that’s so gross.”

Arthur blushed as his short-time friend but long-time crush reached towards him, cupped his face as he turned it aside, and began to clean off whatever had hit him in the back of the next. 

Arthur brought his own hand up, scrunching his nose when he realized that it was spaghetti. “Honestly, we’re in high school now. Can’t these people be at least a little more mature than a food fight-” Arthur cut off his own rant when he watch Alfred fling the spaghetti across the room, to nail an unsuspecting freshman in the face.

Alfred turned towards Arthur with a beaming smile, “Come on! We’re already in the middle of the fight, and The Man can’t punish us all. Besides, it’s our senior year! Lighten up, take some risks, and have some fun!” He held out his hand, which contained a squished piece of bread. “Now, I know you’ve got good aim. Me and you need to team up.” 

Arthur felt flustered and trapped. But part of what Alfred said rang true; he should take more risks. He knew he did. They only had a little bit of school left, and then Arthur would be off to England for college. No real consequences, he was already accepted. 

So he took a deep break, ignored the shouting of his peers, before he accepted his situation. “It’s ‘you and I need to team up.’” And then he flung the bread as hard as he could towards Francis, who was trying to flee the cafeteria without getting hit by flying food. Arthur shouted in surprise and elation when it nailed him in the back. 

Alfred cheered with him, before scooping  _ Tuesday’s Mystery Meat  _ off the seat in front of him. Arthur looked around and grabbed a half-eaten slice of pizza off the ground. “This is rather gross,” he said as Alfred began to scoot out from under the table.

“Yeah, but it’s fun!” He paused and turned to Arthur, “You take the left side and I’ll cover our right.” 

Arthur nodded and slid out, lobbing the pizza as far as he could. A sandwich beaned him in the side, and he couldn’t help but let out a laugh as he picked it up and threw it at someone else. 

He yelled over the crowd to Alfred, “As much as I hate to admit it, you do have some good ideas! This is fun!”

Alfred looked over at him and smiled, “I’m gla-”

He was cut off as loose applesauce hit the side of his head, some of it getting into his mouth. His baffled expression was so outrageous that Arthur couldn’t help but bend over to clutch his sides from the laughter that was pouring out of him.

Alfred stared at him for a second before his eyes lowered into a deep glare, “Is this funny to you? Your comrade has been hit, and you just laugh? You’re a cruel man, Arthur.” 

Arthur just shrugged and bent down to scoop up a crumbled muffin off the ground. “One thing you need to learn about war, Alfred, is you keep your friends close,” he raised his arm to throw, “and your enemies closer.” And then he threw the muffin straight into Alfred’s face. 

Alfred shouted and tried to duck, but the muffin still grazed the top of his head. With an indignant war-cry, Alfred began to scramble over the table towards Arthur. Arthur shrieked and tried to run away, almost slipping on many foods as he ran away from the vengeful Alfred. 

He ran towards the wall, only realizing he was trapped when Alfred began to corner him at the edge of the cafeteria. 

“I trusted you!” Alfred hollored over the noise of the crowd. 

Arthur pressed himself backwards still laughing at the absurdity of the situation, “I-I’m sorry- I just-” He tried to choke out, but Alfred cut him off when he threw more food at him. 

For once, Arthur wasn’t worried about appearances, because he was having pure, unrestrained fun. It was nice, and it was hilarious to try and watch Alfred be mad at him with applesauce on his face. 

Then, suddenly and without warning, the room grew silent. Everyone simultaneously turned to see the principal standing by the entrance on the other side of the cafeteria. The imposing man had his hands on his hips and his mouth was puckered, as if a lemon had been shoved down his throat. 

The furious man opened his mouth to speak, but before any words that were to demand punishment for all those in the room could be uttered, Gilbert, maniac that he was, threw a fistful of mashed-together foods vaguely towards the principal and screeched out a desperate, “SCATTER!” Before he booked it towards a door.

Arthur froze, but not for long. Alfred quickly darted forward and grabbed Arthur’s wrist, before making a sharp turn and dragged Arthur towards the back exit of the cafeteria. 

Arthur called out, “Wait! Where are we going?” 

Alfred tossed a brash smile over his shoulder, “Just trust me, okay?”

Arthur nodded and tried to keep up, which was difficult considering Arthur hadn’t done any type of physical fitness class since sophomore year, and Alfred was currently one of the best players on the football team. 

He followed Alfred across campus, both of them still covered in vague foods, until Alfred slowed and tugged Arthur through a door close to the locker room. 

Likely sensing Arthur’s question, Alfred flicked on a light switch and began to lead Arthur through another door. “Coach keeps this door open during school hours because the team is always leaving our stuff in here. He finds it easier than walking down here all the time to unlock it for us. And, there’s showers in here, plus I’m pretty sure I’ve got a few changes of clothes, so we can pretend like we weren’t in the cafeteria if we aren’t covered food.”

Arthur nodded and followed Alfred, only half paying attention. After the adrenillion had worn off, he realized Alfred was still holding onto his wrist, and the warmth of his crushes hand was beginning to get to him. 

Considering how easy it was to jinx one’s self, it was little surprise that Alfred let go not seconds after he had that thought. 

Alfred stopped in front of a locker and spun his combination in, grabbing out two clean (Arthur could only hope, they were in his locker for after practice, after all) tee-shirts and a single pair of pants. With a sheepish grin, Alfred said, “Sorry, but I’ve only got one pair of pants in here that aren’t part of my jersey. And I’m pretty sure they won’t fit you anyways.”

Waving his hand, he brushed off Alfred’s concern, “My pants barely got stained. The shirt is enough, thank you.”

Alfred smiled and pointed towards the shower, “Shall we?”

Arthur felt a blush coming on, so he quickly turned and began to walk towards the shower. Tucking himself into one of the area’s and closing the curtain behind him, he heard Alfred laugh, “You don’t want a towel?”

Shoving his hand out, he waited until Alfred placed one in his hand before he shot it back into the shower area and adjusted the curtain again. 

“Honestly, I don’t get how you can just shower while dozens of other people are in here at the same time as you,” He huffed when Alfred laughed.

“It’s not that weird. Would you rather us walk around all sweaty all day?”

A rather inappropriate thought entered Arthur mind before he shook it away. Quickly stripping off his clothes, he turned the shower on and scrubbed at the back of his neck harshly. A loud ringing filled the room, and Arthur vaguely recognized it as the bell to signal the end of lunch. He ignored it, however. Cleaning off the remains of their “battle” were a little more pressing than math. 

Once he felt as though he had cleaned off all of the food, which, now that the excitement of being in a food fight had worn off, was honestly quite gross, he turned the shower off and began to dry off. He slipped his pants on quickly, not wanting to be dallying in the shower now that he heard Alfred’s curtain be pulled back.

Slipping on the borrowed shirt, Arthur had to stop himself from breathing in deeply. The shirt smelled really, really nice and-

_ No, Arthur. Be normal, for once. _

He stepped out of the shower, rubbing the towel over his hair to attempt to dry it as much as possible. But when he lifted the towel to finger-comb his hair, Alfred was staring at him. “Alfred?”

The man blinked, before he smiled and rubbed the back of his neck. As he did, Arthur tried to stop himself from blushing. The man was very handsome, but those thoughts were really only dangerous for Arthur to indulge in. So he shoved them far away, focusing instead on how he was missing pre-calc. 

And of course, Alfred was a truly smart (if not dense) man, so he plopped down onto the bench in the center of the room and asked, “Aren’t you missing your math class?”

Arthur shrugged, “I won’t need to know calculus for my major, so I’m not too concerned.”

“Aren’t your parents going to kill you if they find out you ditched?”

Arthur couldn’t help but snort. “They will not care. So long as I get a decent enough grade in the class that my admission isn’t revoked, I’m fine. Besides, at least I go to school everyday. With my brothers it was a fight to even convince them to come here at all during their senior year.”

Alfred laughed, then paused as if in thought. “I thought you’re a super goody-toe-shoes when it comes to grades?”

He rolled his eyes. “Yes, when it mattered. I just need a C in pre-calc, though. The college already accepted me, so I can afford to miss one class.”

Nodding in agreement, Alfred bent over to lace up his shoes. A steady silence filled the room until Alfred sighed, “You know, Arthur,” he began, “I don’t think I’ve, like, ever seen you that excited.”

Arthur scrunched his eyebrows together, asking as he sat, “What do you mean?”

With a nervous laugh, Alfred amended, “I mean, normally you’re all high and mighty. All preppy and rule-following. It was fun to see you get really into something silly like a food fight.”

Arthur scoffed, “What, you don’t think I’m capable of having fun?” Arthur tried to ignore the hurt that stabbed his chest at the thought of Alfred believing him to be  _ boring _ . 

But of course, Alfred quickly waved that fear away. “I mean, I’ve really only known you for like a year. I’ve seen you around campus for longer and you’ve been in lots of my classes, but this year we actually started hanging out, but I dunno, it felt kinda… Tense? I don’t really know how to describe it. It just feels like we aren’t close enough to be super casual and be childish. I’m glad we got to today at lunch.”

He blinked. Arthur had no idea how to respond to such a statement. 

Alfred seemed to realize it, and quickly brought up his hands and waved them around as he frantically said, “No, no, don’t listen to anything I just said. It was weird I was rambling for some reason. I just meant like, I’ve never seen you super carefree. You always seemed stressed and it was nice to see you like that. And stuff.”

He processed Alfred’s words, still very unsure of how to answer. Never one to show real emotions, especially to someone who he liked, Arthur tried to brush away Alfred’s words with a casual, “Well, you did tell me to take a risk. I’m leaving for college and honestly, I think I’d like to know I took all the opportunities I had. Besides, in three months no one here will probably ever see me again. With so few long-term consequences, one embarrassment isn’t much.” 

Alfred frowned, “That must be nice.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I have like, a whole list of things I wanted to do before I graduated high school, and I’ve only ever done like two of them. I’m just too scared to check some of them off. What if it goes wrong?”

Arthur smiled, “Well, I’ve already taken one risk today. What’s another.” He turned to face Alfred completely as he said, “Right now, let’s both do something we’ve always wanted to do.” 

His words felt harmless, but with the intense way Alfred had began to stare at him, Arthur couldn’t help but feel as if he had said something wrong.

But before he could backtrack, Alfred spoke. “Ok, you go first.”

And suddenly, Arthur realized he  _ should  _ take a risk. Even if Alfred pushed him away, even if Alfred hated him, even if the entire school ostracized him, he would be fine. Three months are nothing in the face of a lifetime of regrets and wondering what would have happened  _ if he kissed Alfred Foster Jones in this locker room, right now. _

So Arthur closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Alright. But promise me you won’t hate me.”

He didn’t even wait for Alfred to finish his quick, “I could never,” before he stood, strode over to Alfred, grabbed his face, and kissed him.

It felt exactly how Arthur had hoped it had since the day he realized he liked Alfred. But it also felt nothing like it. The almost rank smelling room, the way Alfred’s lips were chapped, the awkward angle of him standing and Alfred sitting. All were things he’d never imagined, but made it so much better, because the imperfections made it  _ real. _

And then he pulled away with a sharp gasp. He looked into Alfred’s eyes, switching between them because it felt strange to focus on only one as he asked, “Was that okay?”

Instead of answering, Alfred stood. Arthur drew his hands away like they were on fire and stepped back, suddenly afraid of what was to come. 

But then Alfred murmured, and Arthur had to strain to hear him, “Here’s my risk.” 

Arthur barely registered as he was picked up and pushed against the locker, Alfred’s lips mashing against his as he kissed the life out of him. 

They stayed like that for, well, Arthur had no idea how long, as the moment Alfred kissed him back his brain had short-circuited. 

Yet, when they did pull apart, both of them gasping and flushed, Arthur’s brain managed to eek out a quick, “Was that on your list?’

Alfred pulled him back in for another kiss, and Arthur couldn’t help but smirk a little when he heard Alfred mumble, “Maybe.” 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!! kudos and comments are loved!!! my tumblr is @inkwells-writing if you want to see my stuff sooner!! or if you wanna request stuff


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